Theresa May should put a “no deal option on the table” because none of her ideas to leave the customs union “inspire confidence”, a former Brexit minister has said.

David Jones MP, who was Exiting the European Union minister from 2016 to 2017, said he thought Britain would be better off quitting the EU and trading on “World Trade Organisation terms”.

The Prime Minister and her Cabinet Brexit sub-committee are due to decide next week on whether to collect tariffs for the EU after Brexit or use a combination of technology and goodwill to limit the impact of checks on trade once Britain quits the customs union after the UK leaves the EU next March.

Mr Jones told Chopper’s Brexit Podcast: “I think that really the no deal option needs to be put on the table again by the Government because it would be extremely worrying for the Irish republic if that were to be the outcome.

“At the moment we have got all sorts of ideas being put forward none of them which inspire confidence and I think that we do have to talk in serious terms about other arrangements.”

Also on the podcast, Liz Truss, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that the Tories had to become a “positive optimistic party that does have a sense of humour” to beat Labour at the polls.

She said ministers should “talk about money, success, aspiration. Talk about how things in this country are getting better.

“We are seeing real wages rising this week, company investment going up. We need to get that message across.

“The other great thing about being a Tory and one of the reasons why I joined the party is that it has got a sense of humour.

“The Labour party is po-faced, humourless, hat-wearing … there is something deeply negative when you look at the Labour benches and you see their Eeyore faces – that everything is going to the dogs.

“We need to be the positive optimistic party that does have a sense of humour and can take the mick of ourselves because everybody else does.”

Chris Skidmore, the Tory vice chairman for policy, also told the podcast that the party had to “reset the button” and “detoxify” policy on immigration, although he was against an amnesty for illegal immigrants in the UK.

He said: “I disagree with the idea of an amnesty – I think that is unfair on people who have gone through the legitimate route of getting British citizenship and also it would be a free pass for traffickers.

“But when it comes to looking at immigration, Brexit provides us with a great opportunity to reset the button…

“Actually immigration predominantly should be about what you contribute, what you give and for people coming to this country, working hard in areas where we need that work to take place, they should be rewarded with British citizenship over a period of time.

“Absolutely we should be looking for the future, trying to detoxify immigration so that it becomes about not pressure on public services and education but so we can say people who have come to this country have earned their right to be here. They have worked hard they have paid their taxes.”

Nigel Farage “can be embalmed like those Soviet leaders” and put into a new Museum of Brexit, Chief secretary of the Treasury Liz Truss tells Chopper’s Brexit Podcast today.

The former Ukip leader – along with the famous Vote Leave bus with its claim that Brexit will deliver £350million a week for the NHS – are Ms Truss’s recommendations for inclusion in the new museum.

Ms Truss says: "What you are asking me is a bit like Room 101 -what would you put in it. There are a few things from the campaign, may be a Cornish pasty, some leeks and of course the bus."

She adds that perhaps Mr Farage "can be embalmed, like those Soviet leaders" and included in the museum.

Ms Truss makes clear that Brexit will not be delayed to allow for second referendum on the terms of Brexit, saying: "Everyone in my constituency says 'please get on with it', and that is what we are doing."

Ms Truss also criticises a "computer says no" approach at the Home Office when has left more than 100 Windrush citizens unsure of their immigration status.

She says: "The Prime Minister and Home Secretary have given very full apologies about the truly dreadful situation people found themselves in.

"It is appalling that people who fought for his country during the war, have contributed to rebuilding Britain after the war, face that kind of computer says no attitude from the Home Office. That has to stop."

Ms Truss also set her face against calls for a hypothecated tax to fund the National Health Service. She says: "They are a bad thing. If you had a hypothecated tax going into the NHS in the late 2000s, and we got the economic downturn when National Insurance receipts went down, that would have meant less money for the NHS.

"I believe in a tax-funded NHS that is funded from general taxation - that is what makes sense."

Asked if pensioners who work should pay National Insurance to fund the NHS, she adds: "This is not a policy the government has at all. Those people have contributed throughout their lives and I think it is a good thing that people are working beyond the current retirement age."

Other guests on Chopper’s Brexit Podcast, presented by Christopher Hope, The Telegraph’s Chief Political Correspondent, include Gawain Towler, former Ukip spokesman and the secretary of the new Museum.

Mr Towler says a board has been appointed and a number of sites are being scouted to host the museum and archive devoted to the UK’s 40 year membership of the European Union which ends next year.

Michael Deacon, the Telegraph’s longstanding sketchwriter who has been dubbed “Brexit’s Boswell”, and Dia Chakravarty, the Telegraph’s Brexit Editor, offer their own ideas on how to fill the museum on the podcast which was recorded in the Red Lion pub on Whitehall this week.

Tim Morris , the chief executive of the Major Ports Group which owns most of the UK’s ports, is also on the podcast to explain why trade to the UK need not be disrupted after Britain leaves the European Union in March next year.

This week's Chopper's Brexit Podcast comes from the Telegraph's newsroom where Christopher Hope, the Telegraph's Chief Political Correspondent, peers into the future and asks the simple question: will we ever leave the European Union? Joining him in the studio are: Kate McCann, the Telegraph's senior political correspondent; Jeremy Warner, the Telegraph's assistant editor and columnist; and Peter Foster, the Telegraph's Europe editor.

It’s been a quiet week in Brexit, with Theresa May and her Cabinet away on their Easter holidays, but Chopper’s Brexit Podcast never stops work.

Joining Christopher Hope, the Telegraph's chief political correspondent, this week on Chopper's Brexit Podcast our guests are Shanker Singham, the director of the Institute for Economic Affairs’ International Trade and Competition Unit, Matt Warman, Tory MP for Boston and Skegness and a Parliamentary aide to Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley, and Commodore Tony Morrow, the last captain of HMY Britannia, on why a new royal yacht could help secure trade deals post Brexit.